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Core Power Yoga on New Year’s Day

Happy New Year to all my happy shoppers, blog readers and Facebook fans. I want you to know that I appreciate you all. I realize that for whatever the reason, my heart fills with joy when I can be of service to people, particularly in the area of holistic medicine and my particular specialty, digestive issues, that has arisen out of successful treatment, advice and protocols that I make available to you all.

This year we ‘rebranded’ our website’s name, officially, to Good Gut Solution. The meaning truly encompasses all that we provide to our patients and readers world-wide. Good Gut Solution opens the doors to anyone who may have any challenges with their digestive health, no matter how simple or severe it is. We have been on line for 17 years now. We were up and running even before Amazon. How about that! Our previous focus was geared more exclusively towards IBD, i.e. Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which includes both Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.

The length of time that we have been on line, is a true testament to the success we have in helping sufferers to gain greater insight into their condition through simple home testing procedures, as well as to find alternative, drugless approaches to managing their conditions, regardless of whether it is valuable symptomatic relief or true, effective ‘curative’ action.

I am a firm believer in the importance of a comprehensive life style model that includes, mental emotional support through meditation, relaxation and exercise, dietary support by being extremely selective about personal choices of the types of food, as well as quantities and schedules, and last but not in any way least, an effective supplement program that provides both primary symptom relief and supportive ‘whole body’ function.

Today, I started my new year by going to my local Core Power yoga for an hour of what they call C2 level yoga practice. Although I have been practicing yoga for almost 50 years now – starting when I was pregnant with my first child, Romy, in 1967, I had never developed a ‘daily’ practice. Over the years, I attended classes once or twice per week, attended intensive weekend workshops on a regular basis, and hardly ever did yoga at home.

Yet, at the beginning of 2011, actually January 3rd, was the first day, I was introduced to Core Power Yoga by my younger daughter, Carly. She kept at me for at least 3 months prior to that, kept raving about it, but it didn’t ‘sound’ like the type of yoga that I was used to and loved. There were a string of pre-thought of objections… the class was only an hour?? not long enough … they played music ……hmmm wasn’t sure about that either … did they teach Ivengar style yoga? … if they weren’t certified by my ‘mentor’ whose classes I had the good fortune to attend while I was still living in South Africa, how good could the instruction be??

So yes, that’s what I find so amazing. I only went to the class because Carly wanted me to. It was a mother-daughter ‘play date’ for me. She was also going to receive a discount for her classes by making the referral which was an additional incentive. I was happy about that as well. It turned out that there was a studio very close to my house. That was the first good thing – it was near to my house!

Imagine my surprise to find that even though the class was only an hour, the routine that was taught, was so well designed that it truly encompassed what to me was a ‘full yoga workout’. The music turned out to be really nice. The playlist melodies kept changing, dovetailing well with the type of yoga movement we were doing. They included everything…. salute to the sun routine, standing postures, forward bends, backward bends, twists, inversions and core abdomen strengtheners.

I was in awe of the excellent instruction by the teacher throughout the class, who was constantly reminding us how to breathe in and out , coordinating with the movement and holding of the postures – I was shocked. I could hardly believe that in spite of the teacher not being trained in ‘Iyengar style‘ it was a chip off the old block, actually very similar, merely presented using a more ‘modern approach’. The coup de gras was that I discovered that they locked the front door, so there were no stragglers to disrupt the class …. a very important piece of the ‘I like this!’ formula.

So their intro offer allows you to attend a whole week of free yoga classes. ‘Why not?’, I thought. It’s very near to my house. It was like doing a spontaneous mini yoga workshop/retreat. I found out there were different ‘levels’ of classes, as well as sculpt class that is combined with weight training, and what they call restorative classes, that were slow and recuperative. “Why not try them all?” I thought. And so I did. The next great thing I discovered is that there were classes all day long, well into the evening. There were also classes at other studios located in other parts of the city, that I was welcome to attend.

First class was Monday. I was back Tuesday, a different level class, C2, more to my liking … great ‘flow’. Wednesday I couldn’t make it during the day but then I looked at the schedule and sure enough there was a 8.00 pm class – and it was by candlelight. It was amazing. When I walked in on Thursday, I was ready to sign up for a month. I couldn’t believe how energized I felt. The daily routine was having an exponential effect. I had not experienced that before.

Jenny Walsh

That was how it all started. After the first month, I signed up for 3 months and then monthly auto pay. I bought a couple of DVD’s so that I could fulfill my daily practice when I was travelling. And truly, I never missed a day the entire year. My ‘exercise life’ changed and has persisted ever since. I have missed ‘more days’ in the subsequent 3 years, but not many at all.

Jenny Walsh is the manager at ‘my studio’.

She is an excellent teacher. I felt so thrilled when I walked in to the class today to see that she was the instructor. It was a C2 class, which means that the class is hotter than the C1. The C1, introductory level class, always follow the same routine, regardless of who is teaching. The C2 permits ‘more senior’ teachers to construct their own ‘flow’, as they say. Her ‘flow’ today was just perfect for New Year’s day. It felt almost like doing a dance routine.

During 2014, this past year, my much loved, devoted yoga practice was disrupted. I obviously had a lot to learn about my physical body. I could hardly anticipate that it was through my yoga practice that it would occur. I’ll tell you more about it in my next blog post. Happy 2015.

Core Power Yoga on New Year’s Day was last modified: January 2nd, 2015 by Dr. Pamela Nathan DHM